Monday, April 18, 2011

Fraser Insitute Urges Harper to "Suspend" Canada Health Act

The festering pustules better known as the Fraser Institute are at it again. They want the feds to stop enforcing the rules governing medicare for five years to allow provinces to "experiment" with private healthcare alternatives.

The report by the Fraser Institute says Canada is experiencing a "medicare bubble" as its spending on health care becomes increasing costly and unaffordable.

The controversial report has been released as health care emerges as a major issue in the federal election. All of the parties are attempting to lay claim to the title of medicare's defender.

They have all promised to pump billions more dollars into the system, but none has presented a comprehensive plan to respond to the increasing concerns of experts, who say the system is heading toward financial unsustainability.

Curiously missing from the report is the punchline. A five year suspension would be all but impossible to reverse by the end. The uber-rightwing slime at the Fraser Institute know that full well but they also know that their approach is precisely matched to Harper's deceitful incrementalism approach to suppression of democracy.

No problem - yeah, basically the deal is NAFTA guaruntees our system stays public and universal - as long as it stays public and universal. If we allow competition and say, an American clinic chain takes advantage of that, reversing that 'experiment' would subject us to NAFTA tribunal rulings.